FDF slams EU health claim laws
Brussels have been criticised by the UK food industry for
restricting consumer choice and burdening the industry with yet
more red tape.
Proposed new regulations governing the use of health claims on food labels will offer less, not more, choice to consumers, according to the voice of the British food industry, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF).
The legislation, which was approved earlier today, will "damage UK business and restrict consumer choice by censoring some manufacturers information to consumers about the benefits of their Products" the FDF claimed.
The proposed legislation will only permit claims to be made about food and drink products if the substance for which the claim is made has been proven to have a beneficial nutritional or physiological effect. In addition, the active ingredient must be present in the final product in a quantity sufficient to produce the intended effect, and the claim must refer to the food ready-for-consumption.
In addition, the word 'diet' will not be permitted on what the proposal calls 'ordinary foods' and claims expressed as 'X per cent fat-free' are to be prohibited along with any nutrition, functional or health claim making reference to psychological and behavioural functions.
The organisation's complaint is that the new rules are too restrictive. FDF deputy director General Martin Paterson said: "While we welcome the move to harmonise the laws on health claims, the new proposal moves away from recognising the validity of health and nutritional claims on their scientific merits and labels products as good or bad foods - with only so-called good foods being able to make a health claim."
"This shambolic process not only stops manufacturers from being able to communicate a product's benefit to their customers, but also assumes that consumers don't want to know about it on the basis of the product's other ingredients. It's baffling to us, and its censorship to the consumer. UK consumers are pretty savvy - UK manufacturers want to help them to make informed choices."
The FDF has set its sights in particular on the proposal to ban behavioural and psychological claims - such as 'product X reduces the feelings of hunger' - even when there is scientific proof that the ingredients can offer positive health benefits to consumers.
"If there is credible scientific evidence to back a claim, why shouldn't a manufacturer be able to make it?" Paterson continued.
He added that the proposal would also restrict innovation because companies will not invest in expensive research and development if they are not able to communicate the benefits of a new product to consumers.
It would also place a disproportionate burden on companies who wish to make a claim by requiring that they translate the proposed claim into all Member State languages, even though they may propose to market the product in only one or two countries, he added.
"This will give individual Member States too much opportunity to reject a product on the basis of the communication rather than the proven scientific benefit."
The FDF's concerns were echoed by the CIAA, which represents food and drink manufacturers throughout the EU.
"While we support the principle of establishing a harmonised regulatory framework encompassing all types of claims, including disease risk reduction claims, we strongly oppose any a priori prohibition of claims or exclusion of categories of foods from the possibility of communicating a nutrition or health benefit to the consumer.
"All claims that are science based and well understood by the consumer should be allowed," said Jean Martin, CIAA president.
Martin said that the CIAA believed that since the proposal sets out the principle of scientific substantiation and of a central evaluation of the substantiation by the European Food Standards Agency (EFSA), there was no need for to prohibit claims making reference to psychological or behavioural functions or to exclude certain categories of foods from the possibility to communicate their specific health benefits to consumers.
With the growth in popularity of functional and healthy food products, ensuring that consumers get the right information is likely to become even more important in the years to come. But there is clearly a fine line to tread between what can be claimed and what cannot - and with new evidence being uncovered all the time about the healthy- or otherwise - attributes of foodstuffs, this issue is likely to remain a thorny one for some time.
